Cracked Building in Idlib Demolished Following Technical and Legal Procedures

On October 4, technical teams from the Ministry of Local Administration and Services in the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham-affiliated Syrian Salvation Government (SSG), in cooperation with the Syrian Civil Defence, demolished an old building presenting dangerous cracks in Idlib city’s Al-Naaoura neighbourhood. The process through which the building was inspected and  demolished, and the rubble removed, could be considered as ideal and following best practices. However, at the same time, there was no information on whether the rights of the tenants and owner would be guaranteed or whether the owner would receive any assistance to rebuild it. Here is a description of how the process took place.

The building consisted of five storeys. The ground floor was over 50 years old, and two floors were added in 1985 under building permit No. 155 issued by the Idlib municipality. In the early 1990s, two more floors were added without a permit. The last occupants before the building was evacuated, demolished, and its debris cleared, were new tenants. The property, including all its floors, belonged to Nouri Qassas, who resides nearby. The ownership of the land and the legally permitted floors is documented in the SSG’s land registry.

Al-Naaoura is an old and densely populated neighbourhood in the northern part of Idlib city, where most buildings are ageing and close to one another. Many of these buildings have had additional floors added without permits to meet the housing demands that arose due to the large influx of forcibly displaced people to Idlib since 2015, following the opposition forces’ control of the city.

Mr Qassas’s building was structurally supported by load-bearing walls, forming the facade of the ground and first floors, built from carved limestone. The rest of the building was constructed with cement blocks, 10 to 15 cm thick. This means the structure was not reinforced with a framework of concrete columns or horizontal beams. This reality does not align with the existence of a construction permit for the first three floors, as obtaining a permit for a multi-storey building requires that its design and construction comply with building codes. Therefore, the building should have included a reinforced concrete framework to support it.

Cracks recently appeared on the building when the owner of the adjacent land began excavation work in preparation for constructing a new building on the southern side of Mr Qassas’s property. The excavation exposed the foundations of Mr Qassas’s building, causing the partial collapse of the load-bearing wall.

The Public Safety Committee, under the Ministry of Local Administration and Services, conducted an initial technical inspection of the building after receiving complaints from local residents. Soil analysis revealed that the building had no proper foundations. The committee concluded that the compression of the soil beneath the southern walls had led to significant tilting, Mustafa Al-Saeed, Director of Engineering Affairs at the ministry, told The Syria Report.

Based on the recommendation of the Public Safety Committee, detailed in its report issued on October 2, the ministry decided to immediately evacuate the building’s residents, deeming it at risk of imminent collapse, and ordered its demolition. The ministry also advised temporarily evacuating residents of neighbouring buildings during the demolition process.

After ensuring that residents had removed their furniture and belongings and not leaving any valuables in the building, teams from the Civil Defence and the Idlib City Municipality carried out the demolition, supervised by technical experts from the Ministry of Local Administration and Services, and supported by the Interior Ministry, which established a security perimeter around the site. Warning tape was placed around the building, creating a 50-metre radius exclusion zone, with only work teams permitted entry. Emergency and medical teams were prepared on-site, and water pumps were set up to control dust during the demolition. The process took two days.

Hassan Al-Hassan, a Syrian Civil Defence official in Idlib, told The Syria Report that a comprehensive plan was devised to safely dismantle the building using heavy machinery and hand tools. The lower floors were temporarily reinforced with metal columns to prevent sudden collapse during the operation, and demolition began from the top floors down.

The building owner received the rubble at the demolition site, removed the reinforcing steel and other recyclable materials, and then transported the rest of the rubble at his own expense. Neither the Civil Defence nor the Salvation Government participated in transporting the rubble.

In a similar case, the Ministry of Local Administration demolished on September 16 a cracked building in the town of Armanaz, west of Idlib, following a Public Safety Committee report recommending rapid demolition due to the building’s tilt and unstable foundations. In this case, the demolition teams used explosives, placing charges on the columns and walls of the ground floor, causing the building to collapse in place without damaging neighbouring structures. This method is considered ideal for preventing accidents that may occur with manual or heavy machinery demolition. After the demolition, the rubble was handed over to the property owners, who salvaged reinforcing steel and other recyclable materials, such as doors and windows.